


Thrilling Heroics

by mwestbelle



Series: Superheroes [1]
Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-30
Updated: 2011-07-30
Packaged: 2017-10-21 23:36:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/231131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mwestbelle/pseuds/mwestbelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikey isn’t a superhero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thrilling Heroics

**Author's Note:**

> For sunktheglow on her birthday
> 
> (Originally posted May 19, 2008)

Mikey isn’t a superhero. That’s Gerard--he’s the one with the Mission, with the irrepressible grin, with the training and the practice and the control and, yes, the tights. Gerard had big plans at first, when Mikey turned fourteen and he started being able to Do Things too. He sketched them together (he didn’t draw Mikey wearing tights though, just jeans tight enough that they could be) and had great schemes. He was already starting to do some heroing as Chemical Revenge (Mikey asked him what he was getting revenge for, but Gerard said that the name had to strike fear into the hearts of his nemeses and also sound cool in case of future merchandising), but he insisted there was room on the Jersey hero scene for the Chemical Brothers. Mikey pointed out that he was pretty sure that name was already taken, and that Mama would flip her shit if _both_ of her sons gave up on college and Opportunity in order to run around at night wearing sequins.

So Gerard is a superhero, Mikey is just a kid who makes weird shit happen sometimes. Gerard uses his powers to corrode the door of a minivan until it’s loose enough that he can rip it off and save the mom and eight little leaguers inside. Mikey uses his to melt the top off of his Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom when the can opener gets stuck. Sometimes he thinks that he should have taken Gerard up on his offer, but what’s another hero, really? Gerard and his buddies have it pretty well in hand, and Mikey makes sure that the rent gets paid and the bills are taken care of while Gee is worrying about things like who sent that zombie army to the high school and if his new cape makes him look fat.

Which is why, when the apartment fills with beeping, Mikey maybe panics a little. Because Gerard gave him a pager thing (how nineties can his brother get, seriously) but it’s not supposed to go off unless Gerard doesn’t answer his. And Gerard _always_ answers. It takes Mikey five minutes to dig through all the shit in his closet to find the stupid thing, trilling away, and when he does find it, it’s flashing very ominously, with an address scrolling across the screen.

He stares at it for a good while because, _fuck_ , he isn’t a hero. Really. He’s a guy who can maybe dissolve shit with his hands a bit, he doesn’t have any training, or any greater power, hell, he doesn’t even have a _mask_. He never wanted to be that guy, that heroic guy who swoops in to save the day, gets the applause and the adoration and the key to the city. That’s Gerard’s gig. He doesn’t want that, and he doesn’t _need_ it, not the way Gerard does. Mikey’s happy being the little brother who stays home and makes sure they don’t get their phone turned off, because then Mama would really kill them, powers or no (he‘s often suspected that Mama has some “special abilities“ of her own because they had to come from _somewhere_ , right? And though he‘s never seen her dissolve a steel beam with the palm of her hand, her car was always suspiciously rust-free). He doesn‘t want to be in papers, or have a nemesis, or all the things Gee thrives on. He just wants to be _Mikey_.

But that doesn’t change the fact that someone is in trouble, and is depending on Chemical Revenge to save them and, considering that Mikey‘s pager is going off, he isn’t going to. Which leaves some civilian in distress, with no hero to come for him. Mikey sighs, and goes to dig through the boxes stacked up in Gerard’s room to see if he can find an old mask.

**

Wearing a mask is fucking annoying: it totally ruins his peripheral vision, was not really designed to go over his glasses, and makes his entire face too hot from his own breath which really is sort of super gross. So he takes it off and shoves it into his back pocket. Whatever, as long as he doesn’t end up face-to-face with The Cobra (at least, he’s pretty sure The Cobra is evil this week. He has a hard time keeping track of the charismatic antiheroes irrepressibly drawn to darkness, especially when his own team of antiheroic fellows switches back and forth just as easily, and often entirely separately) or Doctor Manson or anybody like that with a deep and noxious grudge against his brother (though he‘s pretty sure The Cobra is actually mostly still pissed about how Mikey never called him back that one time), he should be okay.

He was expecting the address to lead to an abandoned warehouse, or a seedy wharf, or something appropriately dangerous like that. Not a Starbucks. It doesn’t even look like a particularly sinister Starbucks. Of course, that could just be a front, and far be it from him to abandon a citizen in need (also, he can smell the coffee from here).

Inside, he gets in line (priorities, priorities) and scans the room, looking for someone in danger, or distress, or at least discontented. No such luck. He gets his coffee, so the trip isn’t a _total_ waste, and is about to leave when a guy comes leaping out from around a rack of mugs. Well, not exactly leaping, more like he pops out, but it’s still very startling. Mikey drops his coffee.

“Oh, shit,” the guy kneels immediately and picks up the cup. “Sorry, sorry, hey, I’ll buy you a new one.”

“It’s cool,” Mikey tries to resist, but the guy is already throwing away the half-soaked cup and going back up to the register. Of course, when the guy asks him to sit and drink it with him, it would just be rude to refuse. Also, he’s really cute, compact with dark hair and these great, bright eyes. Mikey’s impressed that he was able to reorder Mikey’s drink perfectly, and when he says so, the guy blushes.

“Yeah well. I’ve been keeping my ears open, I’m waiting for someone.”

Mikey’s heart dips a little which, what the hell, he met this guy two seconds ago, doesn’t even know his name, but. He’s got a great smile, and he bought him coffee and…yeah, that kind of really sucks. He tries to play it off cool though, refolding his legs and taking a long drink. “Oh yeah?”

Obviously his attempts at cool fail, because the guy stares at him a second before honest-to-god giggling. “No, hey, not like that. It’s just.” He leans in a little conspiratorially, elbows on the little round table. “You know Chemical Revenge?” Mikey almost chokes because he and Gerard seriously don’t look that much alike, especially when Gerard is wearing a mask and covered with sequins and _how does this guy know_ , before he keeps going and Mikey realizes it wasn’t an actual question. “I’ve been kind of talking with him, might do some dameselling with him.”

“Oh really?” He knows he can’t sound any smoother then he did last time, even he can hear his voice crack a little, but the guy just grins and nods, obviously excited.

“I mean, it’s nothing set yet? But he’s saved me like, five times in the past month and I figure we could do something more official, you know?”

Mikey makes a noncommittal sound into his drink and the guy glances at his watch and makes a face. “Fuck, I gotta run. It was cool meeting you, sorry I dumped your coffee.” He stands up and slings a messenger bag over his shoulder, then glances back, eyes crinkled in a smile. “I’m Frank, by the way.”

“Mikey.” He waits to see if Frank will laugh, he wouldn’t be the first one, but he just grins wider and gives a little half-wave.

“See you around, Mikey.” Mikey finishes his coffee alone.

**

When Gerard gets home that night, bubbling with stories about the cars Bob lifted and how he’s pretty sure Ray is getting a real grip on his sonic beams and they‘re gonna be a _real super group, like the fucking Avengers, Mikes_ , Mikey decides not to mention it. After all, it’ll be better in the long run not to mention that he has a random and stupid crush on his future damsel (because everyone knows that the damsel ends up being the love interest and Frank is little and dark and just a bit sharp, just Gerard’s type).

“So what about you?” Gerard finally takes a break to breathe and actually eat a handful of the pretzels he’s been carrying around for the past half hour. Mikey shrugs.

“Didn‘t do much.” Gerard is watching him with that look though, a little glint that Mikey _knows_ means Gerard knows something Mikey doesn’t know he knows and is enjoying it immensely. “What?”

"Oh nothing.” Gerard picks an especially large salt crystal off and licks it off his finger before grinning at Mikey, teeth displayed. “Get any coffee?”

“You. _What_.”

Gerard giggles, obviously pleased with himself. “C’mon, Mikes, didn’t you think he was cute?” Mikey maybe turns a tiny bit red and Gerard crows in triumph. “I knew it! I knew you would like him.”

“I. Fuck, I don’t even _know_ him, Gee.”

“He likes concerts and horror movies,” Gerard ticks each thing off on his fingers, sing-song like he’s reciting something. “And animals, and playing guitar, and helping little old ladies across the street and making weird faces.”

“That’s. Fuck, Gerard. I can’t believe you’re fucking fixing me up with your damsel.” And he knows it’s a bad idea, a really stupid one, because who is Frank going to pick? He knows how this goes--he honestly doesn’t want the heroic life, but someone who thought they had no option but a normal life? They’re going to go for the key to the city, not lukewarm Cream of Mushroom soup. And that’s just in normal circumstances--how would Mikey ever be able to hold Frank’s interest when Mikey’s _brother_ keeps risking life and limb to save his life? Gerard can protect him from super villains, all Mikey can do is buy him coffee.

But he thinks about Frank’s smile, and the way the collar of his T-shirt dipped just a little extra far, and how even when he was extolling Gerard’s (well, Chemical Revenge’s) virtues, he hadn’t acted like talking to Mikey instead was an inconvenience. And he thinks maybe Frank is the type who doesn’t mind some Campbell’s every now and then.


End file.
